Remembering Pearl Harbor

It was 75 years ago today, but for Ken Sweet and the others stationed at the U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, the memories are still just as vivid.

Sweet was a crew member on the USS Ward. He said when he first saw the bombers in the distance heading for his ship, he thought they were U.S. planes returning from practice maneuvers.

“As he banked away we saw the rising sun on the side of the airplane and we knew our lives were changed forever from then on,” Sweet told USA TODAY.

“The planes were low enough that you could have hit them with a rock,” added Ed Miklavcic. “They were about 150 feet in the air.”

The attack on Pearl Harbor claimed the lives of 2,335 sailors, soldiers, Marines and 68 civilians, and destroyed much of the U.S. Pacific fleet. But it wasn’t just those who were stationed at Pearl Harbor that day whose lives were changed forever. The impact of that attack would be felt by every American and would change U.S. and world history.

The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went before Congress and requested a declaration of war. U.S. involvement in World War II would last until V-J Day, Sept. 2, 1945. More than 400,000 U.S. troops would be killed in the war, and it is estimated that up to 80 million of the world’s population was lost.

“I know of many survivors from the ships there that day that lost their lives at Guadalcanal, Santa Cruz, and other places as they made their road to Tokyo,” said Daniel Martinez, chief historian of the National Park Service’s national monument built above the USS Arizona.

The outcome of the war would dramatically change America’s place in the world. The men and women of what we would come to know as the “greatest generation,” who survived the Great Depression during their childhood, would go on to lift our nation to the most powerful military and economic force on Earth.

Seventy-five years after Pearl Harbor, only a few from that generation remain. An estimated 465 World War II veterans die each day, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Only five crew members from the USS Arizona are still alive.

For the few who remain, those like Sweet and Miklavcic, it is important that the heroic sacrifices and acts of bravery of the men they served with are remembered long after they all have passed.

“People tend to forget,” Miklavcic said.

Not this time. Dec. 7, 1941, will, as President Roosevelt said, live in infamy. But our response to that attack lives on as well.

We have long since forgiven our attackers but we will always remember and respect those who were attacked. Their heroism and sacrifices will never be forgotten.

“In 1941 through 1942, democracy was at risk and America was at risk,” Martinez said. “We could have lost that war. Fortunately we didn’t and … we should remind ourselves this democracy is fragile and we had men and women who stepped up from 1941 to 1945 to preserve it for us.